Oilers can’t find right finish against Kings
The Hollywood hex reaches 11 games after 2-0 lead obliterated in the second
LOS ANGELES On the bright side, it was actually kind of surprising that the Edmonton Oilers lost to the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night.
That alone shows how far the Oilers have come in the last few weeks, that they were fully expected to beat a team that has bullied them without mercy for the last 10 years, but it is zero consolation given how desperately Edmonton needed the points.
The 6-4 defeat was just their second loss in the last 11 games, but it hurt badly as Edmonton lost valuable ground in its bid for home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
The fact they blew a 2-0 lead didn’t ease the mood any, either.
“We can’t overlook any opponent regardless of what their situation is,” Milan Lucic said of the Kings, who were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs last week.
“They’re still a team with a lot of pride. They’re not just going to show up and go through the motions, especially here at home. They play a hard game no matter what the situation.”
The Oilers, meanwhile, have looked better. At times, it looked like L.A.’s battle level actually caught them by surprise.
“We have to be prepared to play in this environment,” Oilers head coach Todd McLellan said. “We
We have to get better every night. We want to be on the upswing going into the playoffs. There are areas we need to improve on.
have to get better every night. We want to be on the upswing going into the playoffs. There are areas we need to improve on.”
The Oilers haven’t won in Los Angeles in more than six years, an 11-game losing streak that dates back to Nov. 3, 2011. But for a while there, it looked like they would make short work of the Kings and continue their own epic roll.
They went right to work in the first period, with Lucic scoring his sixth goal in 12 games and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scoring his 17th of the season to give Edmonton a 2-0 lead at the first intermission.
With the Kings having little to play for, the Oilers wanted to jump on them early and set the tone. They did — for a time, anyway. But the Kings showed they can still dish out a royal beating, roaring back in the second period with three straight goals. Nick Shore put L.A. on the board at 2:22, Dustin Brown tied it at 12:29 and Nic Dowd put the Kings up 3-2 at 15:30.
Suddenly, it was the Oilers who were reeling after that rather uncharacteristic sag.
But before anyone had time for a 2015 flashback, Nugent-Hopkins stopped the bleeding with his second of the game at 15:30 to leave it tied at the second intermission.
The trouble continued in the third when Trevor Lewis scored moments in. Tanner Pearson made it 5-3 at 10:09, and that was pretty much it.
Darnell Nurse closed it to 5-4 at 13:48, but Drew Doughty sealed it for the Kings with an emptynetter.
Connor McDavid assisted on the Lucic goal, extending his consecutive-game points streak to a career-high 11 games. McDavid is on pace to become the only player in the NHL to hit 100 points this season, which would be a major accomplishment considering only four other players have hit the century mark in the last seven years: Daniel Sedin, Patrick Kane, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
“Yeah, for sure,” McDavid said when asked if wants to become the newest member of the club. “It’s possible, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world. These are huge games for the team and we’ll focus on that first.”
McDavid has 20 points during his 11-game streak, allowing him to pull away from Patrick Kane in the Art Ross chase.
The Oilers sent winger Jujhar Khaira back to the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors on Tuesday. Khaira, 22, had one goal in his 10 NHL games this season.